My First Bucket Build: ATA ANH Stunt Bucket

[CommanderZel]

 

I got my smallish brown box tonight and I couldn't wait to open it! I've been waiting for this for a long time, so I'm going to be taking my time on it. I also don't have all the tools I need quite yet, so that will set me back a little while as well. I thought I'd start by drawing my cut lines based on the natural indentations and all of the builds I've followed in preparation for this. It's late here so I won't be posting my cut line pictures tonight, but I'll get them up tomorrow once I make sure that they're what I think are correct. Then I'll turn them over to all of you to see if I've missed anything.

I have no idea what to do for cut lines on the ears, so I'm going to research those a little more before I move on the ears.

Anything you guys want to tell me is more helpful than I can explain! I can't wait to get this all on its' feet so that I can finally join the 501st!

Edited December 5, 2014 by CommanderZel

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Love a big brown box, couple of good ear tutorials around, type Ears in the search tab .

 

Looking forward to the build

[CommanderZel]

Thanks, I'll have to check those out. The ears are the only part that I'm really worried about, and I was surprised to see how much thicker they are than the rest of the kit.

[pattrooper]

I was nervous also with the ears. Just take it slow and trim a little at a time, test fit, trim..you get the idea. 

[CommanderZel]

Yeah, I'll definitely be spending a great deal of time on this.

[CommanderZel]

Well I think that I put this thread in the wrong section, but I'll keep updating it because I don't know how to move or delete threads.

I started on my definitive cutting lines tonight, and I've gotten most of them done. I have a few questions, but I'll cover those later in the post.

Here's what I have so far:

 

For the ears-

 

 

 

 

I included both pairs and the basic cut lines I drew for them so that you guys could tell me which ears you think are the best and most suited to building a quality bucket.

 

For the mask-

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is really the part of the mask that I'm most worried about at the moment:

 

 

 

There seemed to be several lines on which to cut, and I'm not really sure how far up the neck the neck trim is supposed to go. I've looked through tutorials, but I haven't found what I'm looking for. It'd be really excellent if someone could point me in the right direction with this part. Especially with the little bubble and the lower potential line. I'm just not sure which to do. Most of what I've seen has pointed towards the top line, the one closest to the vocoder, but I'm hesitant to start cutting without knowing where is best to do so. I'm planning on saving the neck trimming for once I have my ears installed, but that doesn't make me any less nervous about this.

 

As for the cap, this is what I've got-

 

 

 

 

I haven't done the cut line for the trimming on the back of the cap because I'm saving that for the very last step so I can make sure it matches up with the mask.

If any of the cut lines seem shaky, it's because I'm not an artist and have a fairly unsteady hand when it comes to things like this. I like working in pencil if I ever draw anything, but the ABS has been really hard for me to draw on in pencil. I drew very very light guide lines for myself with pencil, but I didn't post any pictures of the pencil work because the lines were so faint that they wouldn't show up in the pictures. I was nervous to use Sharpie, but it comes off pretty easily with rubbing alcohol.

 

Any input is helpful!

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Have you read this thread? Because mostly everything is covered in it.

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28633-howto-ata-helmet-build-hand-painted-details-pic-heavy/

 

Same about the ears:

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29238-my-helmet-ear-tutorial/

[CommanderZel]

Yeah, I've read both of those. The first thead you posted is one that I'm trying to follow pet carefully with this build, but he seems to gloss over the process of actually drawing the cut lines. Really, my biggest difficult is with the cut line near the vocoder.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

You might haven't read it entirely. The neck opening is trimmed in last, once the faceplate, cap&back, and ears are assembled together so you can remove just what needs to be trimmed. Also, to keep the neck opening as tight as possible to avoid being too much visible from underneath view, keep in mind that the neckseal will hide a part of the bulky ABS, so don't have to completely remove it.

[CommanderZel]

No, I planned on doing the neck opening last. However, while I was penciling in some basic cut lines to get a feel for where I would eventually be cutting and laying neck trim, I noticed that the trim lines for the neck opening on the faceplate seem to be less clear than the rest of the cut lines on the helmet. The only reason that I drew in more permanent cut lines on the neck opening was that I want to know where I should cut before I get to the point where I'm ready to cut. I'm not worried about the neck trim line on the cap, because that line is very clear. That's why I haven't drawn in actual cut lines on the cap yet.

I'd just rather be prepared to cut before I have to cut.

Edited December 5, 2014 by CommanderZel

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, don't trim too much of the back section around the bottom were the ears sit over, you can end up with a gap there and it can be hard to get the bottom screw to sit right

[CommanderZel]

Yeah, I've been noticing that it might be difficult to get the pieces to fit together if I'm not careful.

[CommanderZel]

Alright, I got some tools for Christmas, so now I'm finally able to start really working on this.

 

 

This shot isn't super in-focus, but it's a good way to show what I've done so far. I've got the eyes out and I have four teeth mostly done, although I expect there's still some work to be done on the eyes and the teeth alike.

 

 

Closeup of the left eye. Again, not very well-focused, but hopefully good enough to help you guys help me. There's a better shot of the frown later, so ignore that for now.

 

 

Here's the right eye. It's much more in-focus than the left. Again, ignore the frown.

 

 

Here's a closer shot of the frown, although it isn't particularly great either.

 

 

Here are the two front teeth. I'm a little worried about these because I'm not sure whether I should go with the natural slant of the frown or if I should have trimmed straight across the top like I did with the tooth on the right. I'll probably end up slanting both of them so that they match.

 

Thanks for your help, everybody!

[hon143]

on the two head pieces, i'd recommend not cutting the outside edges until nearly last. you can actually assemble the bucket nearly to completion without having to cut the outside edges. i know that all the tutorials have you cut them first. i did that too but realized i would have liked more material to make the bucket opening larger to fit my big head!

 

for the ears, everyone dreads them. just take it slow. i used a flat plane sander and finely trim my ear pieces.

[CommanderZel]

I think that what you're supposed t do is just trim the neck according to the opening size you need after it's been assembled. That's what I plan on doing, at any rate.

[gazmosis[501st]]

I have always trimmed the heck opening last. Dude...be careful around your tooth openings! It looks like you are hacking up around them. You might want to consider something a bit more controllable like an exacto knife or tiny files. Your final openings should be squared and like you said, following the slope of the frown.

[CommanderZel]

Yeah, I'm scarring the plastic around the teeth pretty badly. I've tried doing it with an exacto knife, but I end up cutting off way more than I intend to. I think I'm going to manually file it down from now on rather than using the tool I'd used before.

As for fixing the scarring, I might try to make an abs paste it if my waste abs and brush it over the scars and sand it down to fill in the scratches.

[hon143]

The plastic around the teeth is VERY thin.  So, you can totally use an exacto knife to do very small, fine precision cuts.  Use the very tip of the exacto knife as the cutting edge.  Gently make little cuts.  The blade will slide right in very easily.  I made diagonal cuts into the teeth area and then cut off those cuts into little triangular cuts to make straight cuts.

[CommanderZel]

Yeah, I need to look at how to do the teeth again. I underestimated them and now I'm realizing my mistakes. I don't think I've done anything irreparable, but they're inconvenient to say the least.

[Bone[501st]]

If you are using a dremel on the teeth, open the holes from the inside of the bucket, not from the outside.

In case you slip you will only be charring the inside ...

[CommanderZel]

That's a good call. I'd done a little from the inside, but it's harder to work that way.

[CommanderZel]

Does anyone have any feedback on the eyes?

[Bone[501st]]

The eyes are looking pretty good.

You might want to go along the trims with a bit of fine sandpaper.

When the plastic foil for the eyes fits snugly, you are good to go.

[CommanderZel]

Sorry about the delay between posts. I've been pretty busy with school lately and I was held up for a bit while I waited on a craft iron to try to correct some errors I made early on in the process. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to take a few, but the short version is that I made a very misguided attempt to bend in the outside of the cap to fit back down onto the tube on the side of the mask. As you might expect, this just made an ugly yellow burn mark on the outside, and now I'm thinking about ordering a new cap from ATA to start that over. I'll be waiting until a few days from now, when the Anovos TK ensemble debuts at Celebration. Once actual 501st members get a chance to take a look and report back on it I'll make a decision regarding who I'll be buying from from now on. If it's not up to standards or couldn't be modded up to standards without a great deal of work then I'll stay with ATA, but otherwise the Anovos pricing is looking pretty amazing at the moment.

 

Long story short: I should be back with another update in the next week or so.